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I have an 04 Civic Si (It's Canadian, so comparable to a US EX) and there's a loose chain sound on acceleration. It's not audible form inside the vehicle, and you only hear it if you have the windows open and you're in a fairly enclosed space/ beside a big bush or something. Any idea what it is?

 
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Ur car manual and the sound comes only in 1st and 2nd gear ? Its the Input Shaft bearing.

$22 part ! with $350+ labor !

 
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Yeah, it's a manual.

I don't think it's only in the first two gears, I know I've heard it in 3rd as well. I also seem to have a bit of a performance loss, you figure this could be related?

 
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hmm define performance loss ? 1st gears fine but u feel 2nd gear takes a longer time to reach 60mph ?

 
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Performance loss as in I don't seem to have the acceleration I used to. I definitely notice it on hills. Car has 64,XXX KMs.

 
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Spiking or detonation ?? Assuming you are running 91 octane or higher ??

If so you could have the timing checked.

 
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If it's only on acceleration, I'd recommend you absolutely rule out any possibilities of detonation. Pull your plugs and check them, make sure everything looks normal.

 
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Thanks guys. I've been reading around and it seems that this noise if normal for our civics. Apparently if you can't hear it with the windows up (which I can't) then it's not pinging or the like. Any thoughts on this?

Anyways, I'm bringing it in to a shop to have it looked at next weekend.

 
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I've never heard anything like that on my car, an '01 EX.

 
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Alright, brought it in to two shops and had a couple family members/friends have a listen. First shop didn't hear anything, inspected the heat shield, etc, said there was nothing wrong. Family members couldn't hear a thing, thought I was nuts. Friends didn't know what it was but they heard it.

Brought it into another shop today who told me right off the bat it was just something in the exhaust system, and definitely not detonation. He also brought to my attention that I needed a new CV joint, which I already figured so I'm going to get him to do that for me.

Thanks for all the help I really hope this will help others who may hear the same noise.